Today at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern, Apple will stream its next Apple Event, one that Apple is teasing by using the phrase “California Streaming.” I expect Apple to introduce the 2021 versions of various models of the iPhone, a new Apple Watch, and perhaps more new hardware. I also expect Apple to reveal more details of iOS 15, including its release date.
In the meantime, you should immediately update your iPhone to iOS 14.8, which was released yesterday. It fixes a flaw that has been actively exploited to hack into iPhones. The flaw was discovered by The Citizen Lab, which is based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, an organization that focuses on “research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security.” In a report released yesterday, The Citizen Lab explains how the Pegasus software, sold by NSO Group to governments around the world, used this exploit earlier this year to hack into an iPhone owned by a Saudi activist (who has requested anonymity). If it was used on that one iPhone, I presume it was also used to hack into other iPhones and can continue to be used on any iPhone that is not updated, so you might as well update your iPhone now – along with your iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac if you have them.
If you want to learn about Apple’s announcements today as they happen, click here to watch the Apple Event on the Apple website. If you cannot watch it live, Apple will let you watch the video again later today. Tomorrow, I’ll share my thoughts on the new iPhone.
Episode 18 of the In the News podcast is now available. In this week’s episode, we look forward to what new products Apple might announce on Tuesday We also discuss the new sunglasses introduced by Facebook and Ray-Ban, the new lawyer dating app, using Microsoft Teams in a car, and more
In this week’s In the News segment, Brett shares a great tip for responding to a specific text in a Messages thread, and I provide tips for accessing and using Reader View mode in Safari on an iPhone
I’m finally back home in New Orleans after Hurricane Ida, and it sure is great to have electricity in my house again. We need a new roof and there are other repairs to do, but step one was to be home so that we could start doing them. Fortunately, Apple provided a great distraction from the hurricane this week by scheduling product announcements for next week. The majority view among those speculating seems to be that Apple will announce several models of an “iPhone 13" and a new Apple Watch with a larger screen, but at this point, anything is possible. I’m excited for next week, and I’m also excited to begin the September-to-November season in which we typically see lots of new Apple products announced. And now, the news of note from the past week:
It’s been almost 40 years since Jackson Browne first sang about Lawyers in Love, but Debra Cassens Weiss of ABA Journal reports that we finally have an iPhone dating app called Lawyr for lawyers and other legal professionals or those who want to date them. I’m very happily married, but for those who have been waiting for this app, you know who you are and your time has come!
What new iPhone features will Apple announce next week? Samuel Axon of Ars Technica believes that we will see an iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro, an Apple Watch Series 7, new AirPods, and a new entry-level iPad and iPad mini.
Sami Fathi of MacRumors discusses some of the more minor features that might be a part of the new iPhone next week.
Will the next iPhone have a number associated with it, such as “iPhone 13"? John Gruber of Daring Fireball says yes, explaining that unlike some other products sold by Apple, Apple historically sells both older and newer iPhone models at the same time so there needs to be an obvious way to distinguish them.
Tom Warren of The Verge reports that Microsoft is close to introducing a Microsoft Teams app for CarPlay, which will work in an audio-only mode.
If all goes according to plan, next week SpaceX will launch Inspiration4, a mission with four private citizens that is part of a fundraising campaign for St. Jude. The astronauts will be doing some tests using Apple technology, including the iPad and Apple Watch, as explained by Zac Hall of Space Explored.
Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reported this week that Kevin Lynch of Apple has changed jobs from being in charge of the Apple Watch to being in charge of Apple’s Project Titan, the secret (except that we all know about it) project to develop an Apple car. And as John Gruber explains, this could be a big deal because it suggests that we are closer to some sort of shipping product.
Facebook and Ray-Ban introduced the $299 Ray-Ban Stories sunglasses this week. They look like standard Ray-Ban sunglasses — in other words, they look nice and normal — but they include a camera to take video or still images as you look at things. They can also play music and let you speak to Facebook’s new voice assistant. Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal took them for a spin and posted a good story and even better video describing this product, which sends the pictures and videos to a new Facebook View app on your iPhone so that you can share them.
Chris Velazco of the Washington Post also posted a good review of the Ray-Ban Stories. His colleague Geoffrey Fowler tweeted that the photo quality is similar to an iPhone 5.
Jaclyn Kilani of iMore reviews the Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with MagSafe, and says that it is her favorite MagSafe accessory yet. I no longer need an iPhone mount in my car because my car has CarPlay, but about four years ago I reviewed a similar (now discontinued) product during the time period before MagSafe. I was a big fan of that former product, so it doesn’t surprise me that this new Belkin product ($39.99 on Amazon) is a great idea for an iPhone accessory.
And finally, Apple loves to post augmented reality experiences to increase anticipation for its upcoming announcements, so of course, Apple did so for its event next week. If you go to this page on the Apple website using an iPhone or iPad and you tap on the Apple logo, you will see an Apple outline in front of you that you can look around or even enter. It’s a pretty cool effect. Here is a video from Edward Munn that shows what it looks like:
Yesterday, Apple announced that on Tuesday, September 14, Apple will announce new products. The phrase that Apple is using to tease the event is California streaming. Once again there will be no in-person announcements on a stage in front of an audience. Instead, Apple will stream a video presentation, which will undoubtedly have a very high production value. What products will Apple announce? Apple isn’t saying, but September is typically when Apple announces a new iPhone (although in 2020, as a result of COVID-19, Apple instead announced new iPhones in October), so I would definitely bet on a new iPhone. Apple also typically announces a new Apple Watch in September. But other than those two products, there is a lot of speculation as to what else Apple may announce. New AirPods? A new iPad? New socks? For the next few days, we can all speculate.
Episode 17 of the In the News podcast is now available. We spent much of the time talking about Hurricane Ida, and more generally how you can use technology to plan for and manage a disaster such as a hurricane. For example, I credit an immediate alert from the TripIt app with my catching a plan just in time to make it home to my family before the hurricane. We also talk about an upcoming feature in the Wallet app that will let you carry a digital version of your driver’s license and upcoming changes to the App Store.
In this week’s In the News segment, Brett shares a great tip for accessing the Notes that you create on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac on a Windows computer using iCloud. I recommend the Midland ER310 Emergency Crank Weather AM/FM Radio, which was critical for me after Hurricane Ida when there was no power and no cell service. This is a great device to have on hand just in case you are ever in an emergency situation.
After causing incredible destruction in Louisiana, Hurricane Ida has moved across the country and caused death and destruction all the way up to New York. In the Greater New Orleans area, the lack of power and brutal heat has made it difficult to begin the rebuilding process. My family has now relocated to Alabama, and who knows how long it will be before we can get home. I see a report that it will take 21 days to get power to 90% of the people in Jefferson Parish, which is next door to New Orleans. I have no idea if that is faster or slower than what it will take in New Orleans. I went through something similar once before, after Hurricane Katrina. I remember at that time, people were just learning how to use text messaging, using non-smart phones with numbers that you would have to press multiple times to spell out letters. Technology, especially mobile technology from Apple such as the iPhone and iPad, has made it so much easier to represent my legal clients, communicate with friends and family, keep up with the news, etc. So as frustrating as it is right now for folks from southeast Louisiana — and believe me, it is incredibly frustrating — there are also many things to be thankful for. And now, the news of note from the past week:
The ABA recently released its 2021 Profile of the Legal Profession report. Page 94 of the report states that 79% of lawyers use an iPhone and 18% of lawyers use Android. However, as far as I can tell, it looks like this information comes from a 2019 survey that I described in this post, so this does not appear to be a new statistic.
I’ve previously discussed how useful it is to have your driver’s license on your iPhone. Soon, this ability will be built-in to the Wallet app on the iPhone, and it looks like Apple has come up with a fantastic implementation. Apple announced this week the first eight states that will support this feature (Arizona and Georgia at first, and then Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah). John Gruber of Daring Fireball has a great post explaining how it works and why the way that Apple implemented this feature is so impressive from a security, usability, and privacy standpoint.
In another post, Gruber explains that Apple will allow certain subscription apps to provide a link on the opening page directing someone to a website so that they can purchase or manage the subscription.
This is just a rumor, but Rolfe Winkler of the Wall Street Journal asserts that Apple plans to make an Apple Watch that can check your blood pressure and that can check your temperature (to assist with fertility planning).
Let’s leave the world of rumors and return to what we know that Apple will do. Apple announced this week that it acquired the classical music streaming service Primephonic. Not only will this improve listening to classical music on Apple Music with better music quality, but Apple also plans to introduce a new music app that focuses on listening to classical music.
As reported by Brent Dirks of AppAdvice, Tweetbot app was updated this week to add a new customization menu that lets you remove some features that many people, like me, did not like. For example, you can remove the feature that when you tap at the top of the screen you scroll up to the most recent tweet, a feature which I only ever activate by accident. Also, you can remove the feature that when you swipe with two fingers you change the theme, another feature that I have accidentally triggered numerous times.
Juli Clover of MacRumors provides a preview of what will be new in the Notes and Reminders apps when iOS 15 comes out. Which could be as soon as this month.
And finally, two months ago, Apple TV+ released a video called The Lasso Way. I avoided watching it at the time because I thought it might have spoilers for Season 2 of Ted Lasso. It does not, and this cute video captures some of the spirit of what makes Ted Lasso such a great show, including the importance placed on helping others. With everything going on in the world, I really needed this message right now, and perhaps you do too. For all fans of Ted Lasso, this one is worth watching:
Just a few days ago, on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ida came through New Orleans and other areas in Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina was a major hurricane, but the real story came after the hurricane when the levees broke and flooded the city. Hurricane Ida was also a major hurricane, but once again, a major issue has been what has come after the storm passed. This time, it has been a lack of power and AT&T cell phone service. I expected to lose power during a hurricane, but normally the power is restored in just a few days, if not sooner. This time, there is a chance that it may take much longer, perhaps even a few weeks. I hope it isn’t that long, but we’ll see.
We lost power at my house at Noon on Sunday, and for most of Sunday afternoon, my iPhone was an essential tool for monitoring the news and keeping in touch with others. But for folks like me who use AT&T, a problem started late in the day on Sunday: it become virtually impossible to get a signal. And this remained the case until early Tuesday morning, with a few minor exceptions where service was available for a few minutes. Thus, during the very time that folks were trying to call or text loved ones to ensure that they were safe, they were unable to do so. And folks trying to access news and other information on the emergency could not do so. Even 911 service was interrupted in many areas. Thank goodness I purchased a very good emergency radio very recently so that we could get information from the local radio stations when there was no other way to know what was going on. In fact, I suspect that some of you outside of New Orleans know more about Hurricane Ida than I do.
Besides that radio, I also used every portable battery in my possession to maintain charges on my iPhone and my wife’s iPhone to use them before the storm and to keep them charged afterwards so that we would be ready whenever we could finally use our iPhones again. It seems like you can never have enough portable batteries. The Anker PowerCore 10000 (my review) was a particularly good one because it is small and packs a lot of power.
I’ll share one last tidbit. As cell service slowly started to become available, it would often work for only a few minutes. I found that I could sometimes get it working again, for a few minutes, if I turned on airplane mode, waited a few seconds, and then turned off airplane mode to force my iPhone to make a new connection to a cell tower. I did this so often that I finally paused and created a very simple shortcut that did these steps for me:
I then pressed the three dots at the top right and selected Add to Home Screen. That created an icon on my home screen. I could tap the icon and the iPhone would enter airplane mode, wait, then turn off airplane mode for me and I could see in the top corner whether I got a connection. By using this trick, I was finally able to start to communicate with at least a few folks on Monday afternoon and evening.
If there was a silver lining to the last few days, it was that disasters like this often bring out the best in people. Everywhere you looked, people were helping other people to get back on their feet. I certainly received countless messages and offers of help from new and old friends, clients, and even a large number of iPhone J.D. readers., and I know that countless others did too. It is nice to have a reminder that there is a lot of good in the world and that we all do better when we help out each other.
